It will be the purpose of this project to establish, and to evaluate the effectiveness of, a clinical anaerobic bacteriology service in the College of Dentistry. An important and unique aspect of the project is use of anaerboic techniques for isolated and identification, which have been developed and used by the Virgina Polytechnic Institue Anaerobe Laboratory. These techniques have been demonstrated to be vastly superior to conventional anerobic Laboratory procedure in isolation, cultivation and identification of obligate from clinical material. Specific objective of the study include: 1. An evaluation of antiboiotic sensitivity determination in a treatment of oral infections. 2. A determination of the species of anaerobic bacteria which commonly produce oral infection. 3. An evaluation of the cost of anaerobic bacteriology service, the infections in which its use in justified, and the utilization of the service by various departments. Specimens studied will be those that lend themselves to isolations in which gross oral contamination can be avoided such as periapical and periodontal abscesses, infections in the course of root canal therapy, etc. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Wittgow, Walter C. and Charles B. Sabiston Jr. 1975 Microorganisms from pulpal chambers of intact teeth with necrotic pulps. J. Endodontics 1:168-171. Sabiston, Charles B. Jr., William R. Grigsby, and Nancy Segerstrom. 1976 Bacterial study of pyogenic infections of dental origin. Oral Surg.: In Press.